Jonte Reynders v Joshua Green (with Motorcycling Australia)

The Applicant and Respondent are members of Motorcycling Australia (MA), the sporting body responsible for the governance of the sport of motorcycling in Australia. In a MA sanctioned event that took place in May 2023, the Applicant placed first and the Respondent second. On two separate occasions the Respondent alleged MA failed to penalise a rider, being the Applicant, for cutting a corner which supposedly provided him with an advantage. The Respondent made these allegations by posting on two social media platforms. 

The Applicant lodged a complaint with MA, alleging the posts constituted a breach of MA’s Member Protection Policy and Social Media Policy. Subsequently, MA referred the dispute to the General Division of the National Sports Tribunal (NST) for arbitration. A sole NST Member heard the matter on 2 February 2024 following written submissions and evidence received from the Applicant and Respondent.

In his deliberations, the NST Member compared the issues arising under an alleged breach of a sport’s social media policy to that of the law of defamation. While the law of defamation cannot wholly be applied here, the Tribunal questioned, should the Respondent as the author of the post, be held responsible if the post procured, provoked, or conduced defamatory comments on that post? The Tribunal acknowledged that while the content of the comments made on his post were outside of his control, the Respondent ought to have been cognisant that the post given its inflammatory nature invited critical comments. The Respondent further argued as the Applicant was not identified, it did not constitute a breach of MA policies. The Tribunal found the posts to include sufficient identifying information enabling an average person in the sport’s community to identify the Applicant the subject of the posts. 

Ultimately, the Tribunal found the Respondent had breached the MA Member Protection Policy and Social Media Policy and resultingly, the Respondent was sanctioned in accordance with the relevant MA disciplinary policy.